BUBU: Local Security Firm Takes Over Issuance Of Computerized Driving Permits

Government has unveiled the Uganda Security Printing Company (USPC) as the new company that will start issuing driving permits in Uganda to replace South African firm, Face Technologies whose contract expired.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Works and Transport Permanent Secretary, Bageya Waiswa, unveiled the new firm that he said will immediately undertake several activities including pre-inspection of the hardware and do data migration from the Uganda Computerized Driving Permit to ensure a successful launch on December 1, 2020.

USPC will also undertake a final user acceptance testing of the new software, card testing at an accredited ISO laboratory, gazette the new driving licence, recruit staff, train and sensitize people and undertake a decommissioning process with Face Technologies for all the driving license stations.    

Starting December 1, 2020, applicants will be attended to at the new premises at Uganda Railways Corporation offices in Kampala by the new contractor.

In May, government extended the timeframe within which Face Technologies had been scheduled to handover the printing of driving permits after the initial expiry of its contract.

Last year, government granted Face Technologies a transitional period within which it had to handover production of computerized driving permits to the Ministry of Works and Transport while early this year, government said it had built enough capacity to take over the production of driving permits.

Consequently, government engaged Uganda Security Printing Corporation, which has partnered with Veridos, a Germany company, to produce the permits and agreed to retain the staff who were working with Face Technologies.

The German firm in 2016 entered into a partnership with the government of Uganda to produce security documents and they are already printing electronic passports.

Following the announcement of the expiry of Face Technologies contract and government opting to use another firm, many Ugandans have been skeptical over the move.

Many say the bar set by the South African firm was too high and that it cannot be matched in as far as efficiency at the application and issuance of driving permits is concerned.